MCTS NOVA BUSES out of service

[Busted Knuckle]

I went to the Vegas airport this morning and saw 3 of the Irizar ( Scania) buses I think they were electric but not sure,anyways the cops had traffic stopped and flagging you around because all three were broke down in traffic ,sharp looking buses 45 ft long with handicap ramps 

Wow three broken down at once? EV or not that's not a good thing for the image.

Back when Dad an I were looking to upgrade and enlarge our fleet I saw some Irizar buses out on the road in service and thought WOW, nice looking buses!
So I started looking in to them and wasn't having much success, then I ran across 3 of them for sale by a bus broker who was more than willing to fly us down to FL, show us all about the buses, fill out out the finance papers and send us on my way with all three buses.
Hmmm, I said sounds nice, let me get back to you.
So dad an I talked more about it and both agreed something about this deal didn't quite smell right. 
So I did some more digging and found a picture of one of the same 3 buses he was trying to sell me in the back ground of a picture of another bus for sale by someone else. I called them and asked them if they knew anything about the Irizar bus in the back ground of one of their pictures and was told "You don't want that bus it's been sitting in that same spot since a broker shorted something out trying to jump start it , and NOBODY can figure out how to fix it!" He also gave me the name & # of the company it used to belong too that was on the back of it.
Sooooo..... I called that # and asked to speak to someone that knew about those buses. When I got someone on the phone, he asked "How I knew they used to own those buses?"  I told him I spoke to someone that knew of the one sitting at a shop needing some electrical work done on it, because it was fried. And that they gave me the name & # off it.
He was PISSED that his company's name was still on it. But he calmed down and talked to me about it. Come to find out he had placed those 3 buses with the "said broker" I'd been talking too, and that they had the buses in their possession and someone had shorted one out frying the entire wiring system to where NOTHING worked. And because of that the broker had to pay them for all 3 buses and was supposed to have removed ALL markings of their company info off them.
Then he asked me why I was interested in them, I told him that I thought they were nice looking buses. He agreed that they were indeed fantastic looking buses.
Then he asked me what kind of buses we currently had and I told him we had older MCI's and Setra's. He asked how we liked them I told him the MCI's were good runners, but lacked in the modern looks department, and the Setra's were great running, and driving buses, but they too could stand some upgrades in appearances.
He then told me if you like the Setra's you should move up in to the S417's, that they were as fine looking as any other bus on the market. I agreed with him, but told him their base price was pretty steep for us.
He told me "Yas get what yas pay for and if I were you I'd pony up for the S417's and RUN not walk away from those Irizar's!
  BK 

[CrabbyMilton]

Yikes. I have yet to see any IRIZAR around here. If they can make a go of it in this market, fine. But it sounds like crappy bus that could go the way of BCI when they tried to make headway. Haven't seen one of those for many years now.

[luvrbus]

Yikes. I have yet to see any IRIZAR around here. If they can make a go of it in this market, fine. But it sounds like crappy bus that could go the way of BCI when they tried to make headway. Haven't seen one of those for many years now.

They are sold in Vegas look at the web site their service network is not much C&J is ok but a RV dealer to work on a bus forget it,The Irizar bus are probably made in Mexico they are popular there ,and don't have all the BS required here,the Scina engine is not bad MACK Truck used some of their engines for years before Mack was sold to Volvo, they were sold under the Waukesa name also   

[CrabbyMilton]

When in doubt, just go with the J4500. Like the old saying goes, the best remains unchanged. That could apply to PREVOST too. I think at least according to the IRIZAR website, the CUMMINS engine and ALLISON transmission is the sole powertrain combo for America. I think they realize that some odd ball engine would have spelled disaster for sure with them.

[luvrbus]

When in doubt, just go with the J4500. Like the old saying goes, the best remains unchanged. That could apply to PREVOST too. I think at least according to the IRIZAR website, the CUMMINS engine and ALLISON transmission is the sole powertrain combo for America. I think they realize that some odd ball engine would have spelled disaster for sure with them.

The required DEF  BS here adds about $25.000.00 to prices of trucks and buses.they probably did the penny pinching and decided it was cheaper to buy than engineer and manufacture their own,plus Cummins has dealers everywhere lol with a 2 month backlog.I like Cummins but they rape the rv people with the ONAN generators service $200.00 in Phoenix for tech just to walk out and look at a ONAN     

[CrabbyMilton]

Great points. Darn right it's easier to source engines from dedicated builders than to do it themselves. Even NAVISTAR/IC bus did that several years ago now. They used to even supply diesel engines to other bus and truck builders and now they source engines from CUMMINS. Of course you have the opposite with PREVOST where they use the VOLVO engine since they are part of that empire and the new  MERCEDES BENZ TOURRIDER using the DETROIT/MERCEDES engine. I could be wrong but I doubt any of the bus builders will develop their own respective electric drive system. Still too new and the original topic of this post shows too many hidden problems yet.